NXT Takeover: The End

[WRau1]

Good main event, that Muscle Buster was sick. Guess we'll see Finn next week at MITB. Hopefully he attacks Cena and joins The Club.

[iMoreland]

Good main event, that Muscle Buster was sick. Guess we'll see Finn next week at MITB. Hopefully he attacks Cena and joins The Club.

no thanks

[Spens1]

Almas's (the former La Sombra) debut was pretty meh. Was a bit underwhelmed given what he can do, this felt like a tv match. Dude is just so much better as a heel though, i would not make him a face, let him get a feel for the crowd first and then let him turn when he is comfortable infront of an american crowd. Anyway passable match but not the best, probably the weakest of the night.

the tag team title match was a fantastic match but why the hell did the revival win? are they that short of teams or are they fast-tracking american alpha to the top. Anyway Revival winning it again doesn't do a lot (idk just find them pretty boring), plus not a huge fan of 2 time champs on NXT in general, should be the one title for each, and the title reign should be just before a team is called up. The division needs more teams in the worst way, and i don't mean just generic teams either. They need proper tag teams (Ciampa and Gargano is two singles guys as tag team wrestlers, both great singularly, not sure about them as a team). Either way great match, one of the best of the night (if not the best).

Nakamura vs Aries wasn't the 5 star classic that Nakamura vs Zayn was but it delivered alright. GOATamura is just delivering in the biggest way. Bet New Japan regrets they didn't make a bigger play to keep him now (he should have won the IWGP championship again this year, honestly whilst Okada is the franchise they should have set up Nakamura to take the title off of Tana, then gone for Okada winning it at this coming Wrestle Kingdom). Either way if smackdown will be the so called smark show, i could see Nakamura having a huge role to play (WHC perhaps). I think its time also for Nakamura vs Joe for the NXT title at Brooklyn. Aries next feud i think will be crucial, it shouldn't be Almas, but it should be someone up their, the question is, who in the main event is left (Balor is gone also).

Asuka vs Nia Jax was better than it had anyright to be given Jax herself is limited as hell. To be fair Jax played her role perfectly, that is of the big bad monster. Execution obviously isn't all their but their is signs of progress. Asuka of course is just looking amazing still, not sure who now could take the title off of her (Bayley surely is going up soon, would make no sense for her to win it again). Also for Jax, where to from here. She can't just go back to killing lower card wrestlers like Liv Morgan (that would be fine also but does nothing for her).

Samoa Joe vs Balor was probably only the third best match of the night which is saying something because the tag team match and Nakamura vs Aries were fantastic. Maybe because i've seen this match far too many times also that its lost its shine a bit. Either way the cage was used well, amazed Balor kicked out of a muscle buster (and it was actually a shock unlike the main roster stuff), but Joe is just too strong.


I am sure this end stuff is the end of the rivalries (namely Joe and Balor mercifully). Though i would be ok with a focus on PC talent also (maybe some of the lower carders and former callups go back down, Crews and Breeze both being candidates for this).

[Dunthreevy]

Cien Almas has got to get different entrance gear. That looked like some bs Halloween costume you'd find at Party City. Match was pretty much a regular match you'd see on any episode of the weekly NXT show. Pretty underwhelming debut.

AA vs. The Revival was awesome start to finish. I don't get the folks who think The Revival are boring. They're top level heels and can go in the ring. They're the perfect opposition to AA. I have no problem with them winning the titles back, because it's pretty apparent that AA is going to be getting the call up to the main roster at the draft. The Authors of Pain debuting and attacking AA was well done and they looked good in their attack. Looks like they've got legitimate tag moves and they've got a pretty cool look. Pairing them with Paul Ellering was a pretty big surprise but in hindsight it makes sense that Ellering is back in the mix since his daughter is in NXT now. I hope this is a test run for the idea of bringing back managers. God do I miss managers.

Nakamura vs. Aries was really good. They seemed to get their signals crossed a few times but they're both so good that they were able to quickly recover/hide those spots. Aries' dive out on to the guard rail looked like it killed him. I have no idea what they do with an Austin Aries at this point though. Who does he feud with? Is he fine sticking in NXT for a while? I hope they do something where he can get substantial mic time because he can make anything work if he can talk about it. Nakamura was great, as usual. I'm guessing he's called up at the draft as well.

Asuka vs. Nia Jax was way better than I thought it would be. I was hopeful that Asuka could carry Nia through the match but she really didn't even need to. They planned out the match really well and, for the first time IMO, Nia played the monster heel exceptionally well. I think prior to last night she hadn't played up bad guy persona enough. Last night felt like she was really getting into it for the first time. Asuka was Asuka and that's more than enough for me. She's so dope.

Joe vs. Finn felt like a big match to me for the first time. I don't know if it was the cage or what but it felt more important than their previous title matches. Their matches have gotten pretty repetitive however so their wasn't much for me to get excited about. It was a fine match and they both got their spots in and looked good doing so, but it just felt like I could map out the moves before they happened. I was scared for both of them with that ending. When it was apparent Joe was going for the Muscle Buster w/ extra cheese I was gritting my teeth hoping it landed cleanly. Sure enough, it looked like they hit it perfectly. Really good match, had a big fight feel going in, just got kinda repetitive throughout the match. They need to separate these 2 for good and never look back. Kinda surprised to see Finn lose in the war paint. I thought they'd build up that "he's undefeated in Demon Mode" for a long while and then put someone over huge when they finally beat him at some Mania years from now. Obviously he's getting called up ASAPly.


Underrated part of the show that I haven't seen anyone online talk about is the camera work last night. They had some very cool new camera shots at various spots throughout the show. It felt like an almost entirely new production than we've seen before, very cinematic.

[iMoreland]

Can we all appreciate how good Corey Graves and Tom Phillips are together? Puts the Raw announce team to shame

[Dunthreevy]

Can we all appreciate how good Corey Graves and Tom Phillips are together? Puts the Raw announce team to shame

Yep! They've got the best chemistry in the company by a landslide. Graves is the best "desk personality" they have in the company, IMO.

[Marcus]

I'm just glad we all get to experience the greatness of Graves even if its not in the ring. The guy has a legit passion for the business. Glad they decided to keep him around and give him a shot in other avenues of the production.

[studcrackers]

I'm a little behind everyone. That tag match was incredible. Both teams go full speed and execute all (most) of their **** without a flaw.

Their chemistry is incredible. I'm guessing alpha is getting the call up soon

[improper]

Can we all appreciate how good Corey Graves and Tom Phillips are together? Puts the Raw announce team to shame

Yep! They've got the best chemistry in the company by a landslide. Graves is the best "desk personality" they have in the company, IMO.

I like him because he's technically a heel announcer, but he has faces he likes and heels he hates. It makes him seem more natural because he doesn't solely side with bad guys or good guys.

I get annoyed with JBL always siding with the heels, except of course when Roman Reigns is out there and he has to verbally suck him off.

[Dunthreevy]

I'm just glad we all get to experience the greatness of Graves even if its not in the ring. The guy has a legit passion for the business. Glad they decided to keep him around and give him a shot in other avenues of the production.

I think it would be a pretty awesome move for Shane McMahon to get control of Smackdown and appoint Graves as GM. I think he would kill any role he's given, and he would immediately give Smackdown a different feel as the "authority figure".

[skbucks1985]

The Almas-Dillinger match was solid. Almas' ring gear was absolutely terrible. Was he serving drinks at the copacabana afterwards? HHH in the post-show interview basically said how stupid he thought it was. But once he got into his actual ring gear the match was good and its a testament to him that he was able to keep the crowd by and large with him when he was on offense because that crowd was ready to turn on him.

American Alpha-Revival was fantastic. Revival are such a good heel tag team. I worry about them on the main roster but it looks like for now that won't be an issue. Authors of Pain looked like monsters, there tag moves kinda sucked. Gable and Jordan bumped around like mad men but I wish they'd done some moves that took advantage of there size and power.

Aries and Nakamura was tremendous. I loved the story going into it and I loved the story of the match. Nakamura-Joe seems like the direction they're going and with Aries. I think rather than stay in NXT have him and Roode team up, win a few matches over the next few shows and then get drafted to one of the main shows.

Jax-Asuka was okay. It was what I expected it to be. Nia Jax is such a hard person to book for because you can't just do even-steven booking with her because of her size but Bayley and Asuka are far better than she is so she doesn't deserve the title.

I really, really liked Joe-Balor. I think the biggest mistake of this feud has been that the first Joe-Balor match should've been face-face and then after the loss Joe turns on him. That way each of the three matches would've felt sufficiently different. But this match would inevitably feel very different and I loved it.

[Marcus]

I'm just glad we all get to experience the greatness of Graves even if its not in the ring. The guy has a legit passion for the business. Glad they decided to keep him around and give him a shot in other avenues of the production.

I think it would be a pretty awesome move for Shane McMahon to get control of Smackdown and appoint Graves as GM. I think he would kill any role he's given, and he would immediately give Smackdown a different feel as the "authority figure".

I can definitely see Graves in the role of guy that books great matches but with the ability to target either a face or heel for getting on his bad side without taking too much away from the performers themselves.